Today on the Virtual Console we have Final Fight for 800 points, Battle Lode Runner for 600 points and Mighty Bomb Jack for 500 points.
First up, Mighty Bomb Jack, and it’s making us see how rubbish our memories are. We spent hours on our NES, and still remember it fondly, so why is every Virtual Console NES release utter pap? The harsh, luminous backgrounds now hurt our eyes, and we can see just how limited the games were. Mighty Bomb Jack is a basic Mario Bros. clone, where you glide around, and jump so high you end up off the screen and have to wait for the thing you control to float back down to the visible area. For what seems like forever. Don’t bother with it unless you want your childhood destroyed.
Next up is Battle Lode Runner. I love the fact that Nintendo are putting on classic TurboGrafx games that you may have never played before, it’s what the Virtual Console should be all about, and Battle Lode Runner is certainly a classic. It’s got a great soundtrack, some gorgeous, clean sprite work and a huge amount to keep you entertained. You play a cute little guy who can destroy the floor around him, in order to trap enemies or reach platforms. There’s a puzzle mode where you try and collect heaps of gold, while avoiding enemies. It sounds rather basic, but some of the harder puzzles will have you crying, as you try and work out the solution, while also trying to avoid being eaten. The main selling point of the game is the multilplayer, though. I’m only going to say this once: It’s better than Bomberman. It’s a joy trapping your friends and the included level editor is a nice touch.
Finally, it’s Final Fight. A basic side-scrolling beat’em up. The best thing about the game is easily the character select screen. There’s a man with enormous tits and a guy called Cody with a joint of ham for a hand. You may remember the arcade port of Final Fight with joy, but for the SNES version there’s no multiplayer, and there are far less enemies on screen. If you fancy a bit of basic fighting action, then by all means get it, but it’s far too basic to be really worth the points.
Game Of The Week: Battle Lode Runner
